CHAPTER V 
A TWELFTH ON THE EQUATOR 
NAKURU TO BARINGO 
The four days preceding the Twelfth of August we 
had been steadily marching through grassy uplands, 
skirting the vast crater of Meningai. There was but little 
game here in August; but, in those days, many Masai 
with their flocks and herds. Eighteen months later 
(February 1906) the Masai had been “removed” into 
their Keserve on Laikipia, and game abounded. 
This is not the regular route to Baringo, whither we 
were bound, but we had selected the longer way round 
in order to avoid the heavy march of twenty-three 
waterless miles between Nakuru and the Molo Eiver. 
The deviation involved a lot of “ path-finding,” picking 
up landmarks and bearings, coupled with no slight 
anxiety as to whether w T e were really holding the right 
course. We had the company on the first day of Mr. 
F. R. N. Finlay, the South-African hunter, who kindly 
undertook to set us our course. 
The first evening we had encamped on a tiny rivulet, 
name unknown ; the second on the Ungusori River. On 
the eve of the Twelfth we had reached the Alabanyata, 
a rapid muddy stream six yards in width and a yard 
deep. At midday, hardly had we “ outspanned ” on its 
banks, after six hours’ marching under an unspeakable 
sun, when shouts of “ Simba ” (lion) aroused us from 
a hard-earned rest. Our men, scattering to collect 
firewood, had come on the beast close by; but though 
we turned out at once, hunted a mile down-stream, and 
then “drove” all the thickets and likely “holts” on 
48 
